Introduction
This release of HstEx® adds support for Basilisk Browser, Epic Privacy Browser, Cốc Cốc Browser and QQ Browser. We have also improved support for many of the existing artefacts.
New Features
We have added new artefact support in HstEx® v4.9 to recover the following:
Microsoft Edge Cookies
With the release of Microsoft Edge Legacy v40, the structure of the table relating to cookie entries completely changed. The older table structure contained information pointing to an externally stored cookie file which was located in the file system. The new cookie table structure brought the actual cookie information into the database table, negating the need to save this information to an external file.
HstEx® v4.9 now includes support for the new table structure and allows us to recover the actual cookie data. It can be selected for recovery by ticking the entry as shown below:
Microsoft ESE Database Based Records
We have taken a considerable amount of time to improve the recovery of Microsoft ESE based database records. Our recovery and verification engine has been rewritten and is considerable more effective than before. This allows for better record recovery and improved ability to detect potential issues with partially recoverable data.
New Browser Support
We have added support for the following browsers:
Basilisk
Basilisk is a free and Open Source XUL-based web browser, featuring the well-known Firefox-style interface and operation, created by the developers of the Pale Moon browser. It is based on the Goanna layout and rendering engine (a fork of Gecko) and builds on the Unified XUL Platform (UXP), which in turn is a fork of the Mozilla code base.
The developers describe Basilisk as "development software" and states "it should be considered more or less beta at all times; it may have some bugs and is provided as-is, with potential defects". It was initially released in November 2017 for Microsoft Windows and Linux.
Epic Privacy Browser
Epic Privacy Browser was released on August 29, 2013 and is developed by Hidden Reflex using the Chromium source code, developed for the security conscious. Epic Privacy Browser is (by default) always in "private browsing mode", taking a proactive approach to ensuring that session data (such as cookies, history, and cache etc.) are removed upon exit. The browser also removes Google tracking and blocks other organisations from tracking users.
Cốc Cốc Browser
Cốc Cốc browser is a web browser primarily focused on the Vietnamese market. It is available for Windows and macOS operating systems and supports both the English and Vietnamese languages. It is developed by Vietnamese company Cốc Cốc and based on Chromium open source code. Cốc Cốc is the second most popular browser in Vietnam, with a market share of 16.89%, according to data from StatCounter.
QQ Browser
QQ Browser (QQ浏览器) is a Chromium-based web browser for Android, Windows, macOS, and iOS platforms. It is developed by Chinese Internet giant Tencent. The application offers a number of features such as tabbed windows and integration with chat platforms. QQ browser version 9.0 was the first released version which used the Chromium source code (Chromium v43). Prior to this QQ Browser was based on the Trident engine.
Change Log
To review the full list of changes for this release, please see: Change Log v4.9.